


Knight on a White Horse

by LookingForShadows



Series: The Lioness Exquisite [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Deathly Hallows missing moment, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 08:18:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4953103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LookingForShadows/pseuds/LookingForShadows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the days immediately after Ginny is whisked off to Auntie Muriel's house, she feels useless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knight on a White Horse

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired by a running gag in one of my favorite movies, _White Christmas._ As a warning: there is a very brief mention of torture inflicted by the Carrows on students here.

She feels useless.

It was just a week ago that she was spray-painting on the walls of Hogwarts at midnight. It was two weeks ago that she had been Crucio’d, and just for proof, she slides up her sleeves and checks. Yes, the bruises are fading – a sure sign it wasn’t imagined. It was three weeks ago she had called a meeting and taught everyone the Patronus in Harry’s absence. 

Her heart had died when she saw a horse canter out of her own wand again. It was just too close to a certain boy’s stag.

“Listen to me!” Bill said for the umpteenth time, snapping his fingers far too close to her nose for comfort. “I know you want to get back there, but if you do, they’ll _put – you – in – Azkaban._ And before you think about doing that just because you want to prove your worth, prove your bravery or some shite like that, think of Mum. Just once.”

His words are biting, cutting, and he leaves her in a bedroom that Merlin himself would have been comfortable inhabiting. The canopy is too tall, and she really, really wishes she was of age. 

And then....that book....it was still in her bag? And no point in sending it back to Madam Pince; _they_ (she pictures the Carrows scathingly) would track the owl. So she might as well use it, oughtn’t she?

The pages of the book are old and crispy-thin; several are torn in her pursuit for the R’s. And then, suddenly, there it is, the spell that could save her, the spell that she has been researching for months, trying to figure out how to get Luna out wherever they’ve got her – Luna, her dear, sweet friend – oh, Luna – and Harry – 

The latter is said with an anguishing pang of sadness. She has held strong this year, she likes to think – tearing up all of the letters she writes to him in the middle of the night, has worked to earn his pride of her. She had never earned that. 

But now, trapped in a miserable place with only Mum, Dad, that old bat of a great-auntie, and the twins popping in and out every few minutes (literally) – she needs to do something, even if it’s just testing.

She whispers the spell fervently. Dad would be proud, if he knew.

Mum would positively kill her.

And so she whispers the words of many generations before her, twisting their meaning, contorting the Latin to bend to her will: " _Reducto incantionem filiorum!_ "

The tip of her wand lights up - flares, in fact, and for a moment she worries she will be without a wand when it comes time that she’ll really need it. But then the flame cools down and she is left with just what she needs – her wand.

Without any of the Ministry strings attached. With that spell, she has broken the Trace. And Ginny Weasley’s not proud of it, mind you. It was just – necessary.

That’s right. Necessary to research a three-hundred-year-old spell that does her a world of goodness and, oh dear, has she really broken every law the Wizengamot has ever made?

Sod it all. She’s going to rescue her knight this time, if he won’t rescue her.

**Author's Note:**

> The spell Ginny uses to destroy the Trace, _reducto incantionem filiorum_ , roughly translates from Latin as 'reduce the curse/spell of the children.' Interestingly for linguistics nerds, _reduco_ \- the Latin verb from which reducto is drawn - also means to restore.


End file.
